: The individual, family, and societal costs of substance abuse in the United States are staggering. Over a million premature deaths of Americans each year are attributed to smoking and illicit drug use accounts for at least another 12,000 deaths. About 30 percent of the nation?s youth reside with parents addicted to alcohol and drugs (AOD), increasing the risk of future use among young people. Substance abuse is implicated in motor vehicle crashes, crime, and lost productivity at work. In 1995, the economic cost of AOD was $276 billion. Despite the enormity of the problem, there are huge gaps in educating health professionals about substance abuse nd methods to study these phenomena. The goal of the competing continuation application is to train (2) predoctoral and (4) postdoctoral scholars each year for a total of 5 years. Predoctoral trainees are nurse scholars earning Ph.D.?s. Two postdoctoral nurse scientists and two postdoctoral trainees in other health disciplines (psychology, medicine, or social work) will increase the cadre of highly qualified individuals to conduct state-of-the-art substance abuse research. The overall goals and specific aims are congruent with AOD research training priorities set forth by the Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, the 2010 goals for Healthy People,Pew Health Professions Commission, and guidelines for training scientists at NIH. The significance of the current and the proposed competing continuation projects is that is promises to increase: a) the number of women researchers studying AOD phenomena which are currently underrepresented in NIDA, NIAAA, NIOSH, and the Institute of Justice, b) the number of women with AOD phenomena being studied. The specific aims of the project are to: (1) identify risk /protective factors and consequences of addictive behavior of varied population; (2) test intervention models including treatment delivery, treatment efficacy, and post-treatment follow-up; (3) acquire skills in statistical procedures for quantitative and qualitative methods; (4) acquire skills in data analytic methods including longitudinal designs and multivariate testing; (5) acquire skills in grant-writing; (6) acquire skills in writing for publication; (7) acquire skills in the recruitment and retention of underrepresented persons for study; (8) articulate a position on ethical conduct of research; and (9) form and maintain collaborations in the conduct of research within and across disciplines. The training environment at the University of Washington is extremely strong. The school of nursing has been ranked the top school in the U.S. consistently since 1984 and is among the top three in the U.S. in faculty-acquired external research funding. The program faculty represent a number of university schools and departments and the majority are currently conducting research funded by NIDA. Follow-up data collected from former trainees every two years shows that most are making satisfactory progress in substance abuse research careers.